What a difference a competent manager can make

Just over one year ago that board took they called a "calculated gamble" when they appointed Chris Sutton, twelve months of being rubbish later and he left, and the club then appointed something they should have appointed in the first place, an experienced manager who was competent. In the month he's been here, Tilson has seemingly turned the club around.

Whenever a club admits that they are taking a "calculated gamble" then you know there's trouble. A club who are struggling against the drop can never afford to take a gamble, especially on a manager who has had absolutely no experience either managing or coaching. It still strikes me as strange that the club said that they appointed him because he had excellent references and interviewed well.....maybe I should send in my CV next time as I have the same qualifications as a manager that the club accepted, i/e none.

Despite two wins in his opening two games, the writing was on the wall as he went from October 10th to December 26th without a victory. A lot of fans pointed out that Graham Taylor had gotten off to an extremely poor start as Lincoln manager, but the difference was that Taylor wasn't tearing apart a team who had finished only a few wins away from the promotion places the previous season. I'll grant you that there were some atrocious players in the squad that he got rid of, Janos Kovacs being one of the players to quickly lose his place in the team, but the vast majority who suddenly found themselves out of the team had been first team regulars and had enjoyed a half decent 2008/9, players such as Aaron Brown and Danny Hone.

There were arguments that Sutton was working with Jackson's squad, but the problem with that theory was that the two aforementioned wins came whilst he had Jackson's squad, as soon as he started messing about with the team and bringing in his own players, that's when the results dried up. There were a few decent talents coming to Sincil Bank during the spell, Chris Herd and Adam Watts being the pick of the those that came in early on, but other than that there were some very poor players that he brought to this club. Anthony Pulis, Michael George, Brian Gilmour, Eric Lichaj, Nathan Baker and Khano Smith were all signed by Sutton in the period between the wins and you'd be had pushed to find many games where any of those players impressed.

Three League wins in a row papered over the cracks in December and January, and many hoped that a busy February that would see City play eight games would see City pull well clear of the drop zone, however, City struggled for results. A 97th minute Danny Hone goal rescued a point at rock-bottom Darlington, City were second best in a game at Grimsby that saw the hosts set a new club record for League games without a win. Out of the eight games, the Imps only recorded one victory and that came due to an own goal, however, the last game in February saw the arrival of the man responsible for saying City last year, Davide Somma.

Somma came with a reputation of not scoring goals and had been on loan at Chesterfield earlier in the season, failing to score. However, his debut goal started off a run where he would almost single-handedly keep City out of the relegation goal, scoring stunning goal after stunning goal, the best of which was a half volley against Bournemouth. It was Somma's goal against Bury with two weeks to go that secured League status for the Imps and out of all of the players Sutton bought to the club, it is near enough unanimously agreed Somma was the best.

The 2009/10 season had been failure though, Jackson had been sacked despite a better start than the season before but then Sutton tore apart his side and assembled one which lost games that City had comfortably won the season before. Had it not been for a combination of Somma's form and the dreadful seasons for Grimsby and Darlington, Sutton would had taken the club down.

It hadn't just been the fact we rarely won, it was many other aspects that saw City fans fail to be optimistic for the future. Sutton bizarrely kept playing players that consistently played poorly. Lenell John-Lewis and Paul Connor being the prime examples of players that put in a good game as often as there's a chance of the clocks, and yet they were constantly getting played.

The summer saw several comings and goings, but striker after striker rejected the Imps and you always got the feeling that Sutton was focusing on trying to bring Somma to the club permanently, something that was never going to realistically happen and because of this, City lost out on several strikers. The way he also treated players like Steven Lennon, a loanee in the second half of the season who he offered a contract to, was ridiculous. Offering a contract to a player before then ignoring every phone call from that player, especially one who wants to join your club, is just ridiculous. The same happened with Brian Gilmour.

City had to eventually settled for Drewe Broughton, Delroy Facey and Gavin McCallum. Broughton and Facey had been on loan at the club in the previous season and neither had impressed, scoring just one goal between them, whereas McCallum had a generally poor scoring record Hereford, only being known to City fans for scoring twice against City in a 2-0 win for Hereford in February 2010.

Other than that there were some impressive players coming in though, mainly those that had performed well against the Imps in the previous season. Mustapha Carayol arrived from Torquay, Albert Jarrett joined after being released by Barnet, Josh O'Keefe arrived from Walsall, Lincoln-born Jamie Clapham came in from Notts County and Joe Anyon joined following his release from Port Vale. There were signs that we had a half-decent squad again.

However, City struggled in pre-season, struggling to overcome three London non-League clubs and losing convincingly at Grimsby, and the poor form continued into the new season with City losing both of their opening League games and getting mauled at Leeds in the Carling Cup. It was an undeserved win at Gillingham that papered over the cracks again, moving City up to fifteenth, the highest position City had managed under Sutton.

The general feel around Sincil Bank though was negative. You could tell that the players didn't enjoy being at the club, none of them played like they were motivated and poor results were becoming the norm. A 0-0 draw at Burton may not have seemed significant, but it was to be the last time City had Chris Sutton in charge as manager. He resigned for personal reasons exactly twelve months after he was appointed and the only people throughout the entire club that seemed disappointed that he was gone were the board. Bob Dorrian has said that he pleaded with Sutton to stay, hearing that, you'd think Sutton was some kind of all conquering hero that had become a club legend, not a manager who won just 14 of his 51 games in charge.

You could tell that things had changed the better though with Sutton gone. Sutton leaving was like a dark cloud being lifted and now the Imps could finally look for something that they hadn't had for a year, a competent manager. Names such as Dave Penney, Steve Thompson, Gareth Ainsworth and Martin Foyle were all linked to the manager's seat, but looking back on the situation it only seems like an ironic twist of fate that the first game without Sutton came at Southend.

Southend United had themselves had a change of manager after Steve Tilson had bizarrely been put on gardening leave by the club, that despite all that he had achieved with the Essex club, including winning two promotions for a club who had regularly featured towards the bottom of the old Division Three. Tilson declared his interest in the City job and was one of six given an interview. Rumour has it that he blew the club away and that rumour was backed up by the fact he was appointed.

The difference around the club was there to all the see. The players had smiles on their faces again and all the stories about how negative Sutton was were plastered in the Echo near enough every day. Sutton and Tilson were like chalk and cheese. You were more likely to have Sutton flash his arse than you were to see him smile or chat to the fans, Tilson (and assitant Paul Brush) are completely the opposite and actively come over and socialise with the fans and they are a good pair, similar in terms of relationship with each other and the fans to the Alexander/Simpson combination of the 2002-2006 era.

Despite two less than thrilling performances at home against Stockport and Northampton, the Imps did record their first FA Cup win at Sincil Bank since 2003 with a win over Nuneaton. It maybe not have been a classic performance, but it was a game that you suspected would have resulted with a City defeat had Sutton been in charge. Whilst the home performances may not have been brilliant, it's the away performances that have seen brilliant performances.

City are a side who don't often do well on the road but we're unbeaten away from home under Tilson and the performances involve fight and guile, it's a side on the road that now doesn't seem to know when it's beating. In the last two away games we have been behind a total of three times, and yet have come back to gain four points from the two games. The game at Morecambe yesterday saw the best second half performance that the Imps have put in for a long time, seeing City come from behind to take three points when Ashley Grimes (right) rounded off a good performance with a goal, albeit a soft goal.

With a busy schedule coming up City fans can start looking optimistically at the future. The performances are improving and just one defeat in his opening five games in charge is something that only Alan Buckley and John Schofield have managed. Tilson is doing to us what he did with Southend, turning them into a very difficult side to beat and *touch wood* this club does appear to be finally going somewhere.